THE DOCTOR AND THE SHEIKHS' DEBATE
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Sh Usman: Sheikh Ibrahim it feels really good to know that one's Imam currently exists on this earth.
Dr Zohair: With the explanations that the Doctor mentioned regarding the Ahl Al Bayt's Hajj, Sheikh did not go to Mena and brought us all straight to Arafa. He wants to meet with Imam Mahdi.
Sh: No matter what I think I see that the Doctor’s words are very close to the heart. Even when I disagree it's because I want him to tell me more.
Dr: Dear Sheikh I am no scholar it's just words of an Engineer that wishes to defend his religion.
If you have time we could go to one of the tents of our scholars and start having a scholarly debate there then you will realise that my knowledge is limited.
Sh Usman: Thank you very much. It is late and I can't even handle you never mind your scholars.
Sh: I think that they might know more than you but the way you discuss is in a very Engineering way. You take us right into a corner and leave us with nowhere to run. Therefore, I enjoy it more rather than a scholarly discussion.
Dr: By the way, how is Doctor Amr Mosa doing?
Dr Zohair: He went with the others to Mena. He will come back to Arafa later.
Sh: To be honest Dr Zohair is more interested in the discussions we have and is no longer allowing me to see you alone.
Sh Usman: Be fair. I never thought that I would come to Hajj from Egypt and have such a scientific debate. Of course I wouldn't miss it for anything. I told Sheikh not to meet up alone with you and to have me with him for it.
Dr: I found this meeting to be very helpful. God willing it will continue in Mena and Mecca.
They said goodbye and left. I also went after finishing my ordinances for the night of Arafa. The anticipating of seeing our Imam and leader has its own merit. You continuously search between the people hoping that you might see Imam Mahdi and to know it is him. But my soul is not yet ready to have the honor to see him yet. Maybe on the next trip and on another Arafa I will see him. That is considering our sinful eyes and God's blessing and attention and permission of Imam Mahdi himself. Dear God, Help us.
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Day Ninth of Zihajjah (Arafa Day)
The Arafa Supplication
The next day all three of them showed up. We went to the place where they were reading the Supplication of Arafa. They start with citing the Quran. The Iranian Qari (Quran reader) started with a nice voice. Surat Al Yusuf:
"So when they entered upon Joseph, they said, "O Azeez, adversity has touched us and our family, and we have come with goods poor in quality, but give us full measure and be charitable to us. Indeed, Allah rewards the charitable."
The sound of mourning rose, as they understood the meaning of the verse.
Sh: Why are they crying? The verse is from the Quran.
Dr: Did you know that Joseph's brothers read this verse. They said that we have come emptyhanded. He is saying to God that we are also empty-handed. Nevertheless, please give us your attention just as Joseph the king did to his brothers.
Sh Usman: What a nice interpretation of the verse.
Dr: It has another interpretation too.
Sh: Please tell us what other interpretation is there of it?
Dr: As they are sure that Hazrat Mahdi is amongst them in Arafa and is hidden and in reality lost in their eyes and they are aware that he is Hazrat Fatimah's grandson they call him Fatimah's Joseph. Therefore, this verse of the Quran is addressing him as well and saying that if we are empty handed at least have us have his attention to us.
Sh: Wow that was beautiful.
The supplication started. I gave them each a copy of the supplication so they could read it. As the supplication was being read I saw tears running down Sheikh Ibrahim and Sheikh Usman's face.
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Dr Zohair was sometimes falling behind or would stop at a certain page and would explain that he could not easily surpass them as easily. He said, now I understand why that night Sheikh Ibrahim came back with the Mafatih and was up until the Morning Prayer reading it.
The supplication took a while and they unwillingly had to leave in the middle of it, as they had to go to mashaar with their tour group. That is another problem with the Iranian programs running for the supplications of Arafa. They take until sunset to read it and then be confronted with high congestion with other busy tour groups as they have to go back to their tents to read the Maghrib and Isha Prayer. Then they all have to go to mashaar (sacred monument). For that reason, many of the religions scholars that have experience with travelling to Hajj read the supplication of Arafa on their own in their tents. Even though, to be fair, reading the supplication of Arafa with a group is much more rewarding and this event has been better organized compared to previous years.
At night, we went to mashaar and Voqoof (hault) and stayed until dawn. Then we went to Mena and then Rami Jumrah Aqbah. I informed them on the phone, that I had finished the provisions of Rami and that I had our five names for sacrification. Our sacrification took until the evening to finish. After conducting Taghsir (hair cut), I exited Ihram. Unfortunately, some had come out of Ihram on the eleventh of Zihajjah.
At nighttime, we headed towards Mecca and Masjid Al Haram for Tawaf and Saay (running ritual of the pilgrimage) and Nisa Tawaf (women circumambulation). After the ordinances, I met with Sheikh and his friends. We planned for them to come to our tent on the eleventh in Mena.
That was because I did not know where their tent was. I returned to the hotel in Mecca and had a rest. Later I made my way through the pavement to Mena in evening. I read a prayer with the congregational Imam, had lunch and rested again as I waited for the Sheikh and his friends.
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Day Eleventh of Zihajjah
In the tents of the tour group I was waiting for the Sheikh and his companions. No matter how long I waited they didn’t show up. The mobiles weren't working. I just had the Sheikh's number and trying anything else in the rush and traffic of Mena was pointless. I thought maybe the Sheikh has not managed to find my tent so I headed outside my tent and stood outside close to the street for a whole hour. No news came from the Sheikh and his companions. After a while I saw Dr Zohair and Dr Amr Moosa heading towards my tent.
Dr: Salam Alaikum, where have you been? Where is Sheikh?
Dr Zohair: We have bad news. We were out with the Sheikh at Rami Jamrat and unfortunately due to the pressure of the population gathered he fell and twisted his ankle so badly that it is very hard for him to walk.
Dr: How is he now?
Dr Amr Moosa: He is okay and resting in his tent.
Dr: Did his ankle get twisted before or after Rami Jamrat?
Dr Zohair: Thankfully his Rami were finished and we were returning backwards close to the Jamrat. We were also taking care of him.
Dr Amr Moosa: No we weren't taking care of him. We were throwing stones from a long distance away from him. We weren't even sure if he hit anyone's head doing so but the Sheikh didn’t want the stones to hit anyone by mistake and so headed to go a little closer and …
Dr: I think that Sheikh wanted the stones to hit the pillar and walls of Jamrat instead of the people.
Dr Zohair: You are right. Sheikh went closer so the stones wouldn’t hit the peoples head and instead for it to hit Satan.
Dr: Well please come in the tent and have a seat and meet with my friends.
Dr Zohair: Sheikh has said that he is ready to speak but in his tent so that is why we have come to take you there.
Dr: Please allow the Sheikh to rest.
Dr Zohair: Sheikh has rested. He slept right after we got him back via the ambulance. He is ready to get to see you.
Dr: Very well, it would be good to call upon the unwell.
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Dr Amr Moosa: I believe this ill person is more anticipating to debate with you rather than to be called upon.
Dr: Thank you, please allow me to go to my tent and wear something better and bring my mobile programme with me.
Dr Amr Moosa: Come and let's go what you are wearing is fine.
Dr: Let's go but having said that if I don’t bring my mobile programme with me it's as if I have not brought a couple of thousands books with me.
Dr Zohair: You do not have to bring the programme with you. You only need it when you wish to bring proof and for today just don’t show any proof.
Dr: That is okay we might not debate at all today and just get to see him instead.
Dr Amr Moosa: I don’t think Sheikh would just leave you to that.
Dr: I hope that it is not the case. At least allow me to bring moisturising oil for his feet from my tent and of course this way I can pick up the programme as well.
Dr Zohair: Sheikh has really warmed up to you. He says that since he has met with you, issues have been clarified to him that he had never paid any attention to.
Dr Amr Moosa: His beliefs are all over the place right now. I think the reason why he went closer to throw stones was because he said that Doctor has said that the stones have to hit the wall and just throwing them is not enough.
Dr: I really like Sheikh as well. He is an astonishing, truth seeking person. If he has heard something questioning he is the kind of person that would admit to it. He does not say: I am a Sheikh. I am a professor of Alazhar. I am a religiously educated person I shouldn’t listen to this Engineer.
Dr Zohair: I believe most of the professors in Alazhar have the same kind of personality. They are typically scholars and less fanatical. I think that is why Alazhar is so proudly known for not being ossified.
Dr: It is an important thing to be proud of.
Dr Amr Moses: While we are heading towards there let's stop talking about these things and have some fun. When we get to the Sheikh we can start these kinds of conversations again.
Dr Zohair: After thirty years of talking gibberish in England what did you gain? Allow us to at least in this trip to Hajj hear some religious conversations especially with the presence of the Doctor and Sheikh.
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Dr Amr Moosa: Alright then I will talk religiously. One person had gone to Rami Jamrat and once he returned his head was injured and bleeding. I asked him why did this happen? He said that he decided to get close to the pillar wall as close as possible in order to kiss it but there were so many stones that he got injured.
Dr Zohair: Well, that wasn’t so bad.
Dr: It was good.
Dr Amr Moosa: One person from the city of … comes to Mecca and once he arrives to Meeqat (place of meeting) he hesitates and thinks for a bit. He starts wondering how do I Ihram? What do I say? They ask him: What is the problem? Why do you not Ihram? Don’t you have your white towel? He replies: yes I do. They responded: Then what are you waiting for? He responds because I am a Christian and I just realized that I shouldn’t have even come here.
Dr Zohair: That was nice too.
Dr: It was good I just wished you hadn't mentioned the name of the city.
Dr Amr Moosa: These were from what I knew. If you guys know any jokes please share.
Dr: One person participated in the congregational prayer. The congregational Imam began to start citing Surat Nuh he read:
"Indeed, we sent Noah to his people, [saying]"
He forgot the rest of the verse and started to repeat the only thing he could remember. One of the impatient officers that got tired of the Imam repeating the same part complained and said: Hey Mr, if Noah isn't going to do it send someone else.
Dr Zohair: That was good.
Dr Amr Moosa: See, where is the fault with these kinds of conversations? I find it very relaxing.
Dr: Okay, well the next one is about praying too. A person goes to congregational prayer he sees that the congregational Imam cites a verse loudly whilst praying. Once the pray finishes he asks what verse was this? The Imam responds back: It was Surat Annaml (Ant). At the next pray he notices that the congregational Imam cites the Al Fil (Elephant). So he says: If that was Naml then I am not going to wait to see what Fil is going to be like. He leaves the prayer and goes.
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Dr Amr Moosa: Even your jokes are religiously related.
Dr: It is better than telling prosaic jokes.
Dr Amru Moses: That was good. Tell us another one. We are getting close to Sheikh's tent.
Dr Zohair: No it isn't necessary but I have realised in the past couple of our meetings that we are in dire need of exceeding our knowledge concerning our Islamic education. We just relied on the fact that our parents were Muslims and abided by that where as it shouldn’t be that way.
Dr Amru Moses: We are arrived to Sheikh's tent now let's go inside to see the Sheikh.
Dr: Salam Alaikum Dear Sheikh, what happened?
Sh: Alaikum Salam Doctor. I waited a while so I thought that you are not coming.
Dr: Well to be honest I didn’t want to come so you would rest.
Sh: No it isn't that important I am much better now. I just can't walk a lot.
Dr: Well it seems that you got to close to Satan and he got scared and knew any closer you're going to hurt him. So he attacked you.
Sh: Well he is always trying to hurt me so it wouldn’t be so bad once in a while to attack him back and hit him with a stone. Of course he is going to get upset.
Dr: I brought you moisturising oil which is a combination of Mecca's Mummy, almond oil, olive oil and sheep oil so you could rub it on your feet and get better soon.
Sh: Thank you, I will do it later.
Dr Amr Moosa: I am a doctor. Allow me massage it on your feet right now so it will affect as you are sitting. I won't take too long.
Sh: No, do it after the Doctor has left.
Dr: No, it is better for me to be here so I can tell Dr Amr Moosa how the oil is more affective.
Sh: Alright then Dr Amr Moosa start you magic.
He started to massage the Sheikh's foot and it slowly felt better.
Sh: Okay so what happened to today's debate.
Dr: If you agree allow me to just visit you as someone visiting the ill.
Sh: No, debate is good for me. We are sitting and instead of talking about talking about various things in Mena we can have a religious debate.
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Dr: Alright then, we can continue the previous debate.
5- Ali's Superiority over the Other Caliphas
Dr: Let us go to next section and that is the superiority of Ali over the other Caliphas.
Sh: Why is this topic being chosen?
Dr: We debate now and then you will see why.
Sh: Please start.
Dr: Very well. Today we will focus on Ali's position amongst the other companions.
Sh: Ali, without a doubt should have a very important position amongst the companions.
Dr: Yes, but they didn’t choose him as Calipha.
Sh: Yes they did. He was the fourth Calipha.
Dr: If he had such an important place then how come he didn’t become the first Calipha?
Sh: The reason why they didn’t choose him as first Calipha was because he was too young.
Dr: Some people are chosen for times that decisions have to be made at the moment such as war and are not classed too young then, but for decisions made at a time of peace they are too young.
Sh: The fact that he was too young was mentioned but in the end it was a decision made by the Calipha.
Dr: Who has authority to make that decision do you think?
Sh: By the companions, in the beginning of Islam, that made the decision.
Dr: If they did it against what the Prophet has said, would it still be acceptable? And of course you saw that the choosing of Calipha was by three ways and the first way was not repeated. It shows that the way they went about it was wrong.
Sh: If the Prophet had chosen a Calipha then no, the actions of the companions were wrong.
Dr: It wouldn’t be so bad to see the position of Ali at the time of the Prophet. Did this person truly not have the right for being Calipha, Imam and have trusteeship.
Sh: Please tell us.
Dr: Very well. We will cite from your own books.
Sh: We have many Hadith regarding the companions especially for Ali in our books.
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Dr: That is right. One of the most important of the books that is also the most reliable and authentic is called the Khasais Amir Almumenin Ali Ibn AbiTaleb written by Sheikh Ahmad Nesaei Shafia.
He begins on saying that the characteristics mentioned by the Prophet for Ali are just said about him and no other companion. Therefore, similar to these Hadith said about Ali there are none similar to them for anyone else.
Sh: Ali's characteristics are undeniable.
Dr: You are aware that when Nesaei entered Shaam and saw that the people are cursing Ali at prayers, alters and chambers he wrote this book and names it the Khasais Amir Almumenin Ali Ibn Abitaleb. I will only cite some of the specifications from the book.
Sh: Yes, this book that is especially written about him is very famous.
Dr: Yes, but this book was the reason why they killed him.
Sh: How come?
Dr: You do know that once he started to teach this book in the Mosque of Amavi in Damascus they hit so many times that he got ill from it and died. Why? He was saying to not curse Ali.
Sh: Yes, Unfortunately that is true.
Dr: I have translated this book to Persian and it has Arabic and Persian writing. I have brought it with me. It has been published. I have bookmarked the pages and chapters and picked out the Hadith from it. For example 8/17/11 from chapter 8 from the book says this. Hadith number seventeen and eleven. Now let's see what Nesaei says about the Prophet and what Hadith's do we have for Ali. In order to not repeat the same Hadith I will just cite a portion of them.
(All of the Hadith's discussed with the Sheikh are stated in the Appendix one of this book and it is written in Arabic and the translations are all taken from the book of Khasais Nesaei.)
After reading the content of the Hadith's from the book of Khasais Nesaei Sheikh said.
Sh: Yes, these expressive definitions about Ali are true.
Dr: Please be fair, do we anyone amongst the companions of the Prophet with such characteristics?
Sh: Well every single one of the companions have some definitions from the Prophet but not with this importance and the characteristics that are mentioned here.
Dr: So we can agree that Ali was the best companion.
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Sh: It has to be accepted as these Hadith's are almost unanimous.
I ended up having a small friendly chat with Sheikh and his friends and as usual Sheikh and his friends especially Sheikh Usman expressed their remorse on taking a simple look at their religion as scholars. We said Goodbye and eventually set another time for the mid Zihajjah to meet up as there would be less crowded.
I returned to my tent. I decided with some of the friends to start up till midnight at Mena and Beytooteh (passing the night). We did it and returned the next day on mid day at Rami Jamarat.
We didn't do it from inside the Mena but from the hotel that is only fifteen minutes away from it.
We came back to the hotel and I didn't see the Sheikh until the fifteenth of Zihajjah.